Martha Stewart's Baked Ravioli Recipe

Baked Ravioli - Martha Stewart Website Recipe

I loved pasta growing up. I would come home from school, run for the fridge and eat anything I could find. One of my favorite foods was pasta and in particular ravioli. My mother would cook it for me at least once a week. She was always worried that I wasn't eating enough since I was rail thin growing up. My mother took me to the doctor multiple times thinking that I was sick or malnourished. I wasn't, I just didn't put on a lot of weight. Pasta was a food that she felt was hearty and I loved, so it was a great food match. I have carried on my pasta addiction with my two boys. They will take cold spaghetti out of the fridge and eat it straight from the container. No sauce, no butter, just the olive oil it was initially tossed with. Since my family loves pasta and I hadn't made any ravioli dishes in a very long time, I decided to give a new recipe a try. I tried the recipe for Baked Ravioli from the Martha Stewart website. It is as follows:

Everyday Food, September 2003  

http://www.marthastewart.com/331829/baked-ravioli

• Prep Time 25 minutes
• Total Time 50 minutes
• Serves 6

Ingredients

• • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme, or oregano
  • 1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes
  • 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
  • 2 pounds store-bought frozen ravioli
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and season with salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add thyme and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, breaking up tomatoes with spoon, until sauce is thickened and reduced to about 5 1/2 cups, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cook ravioli in a large pot of boiling salted water just until they float to the top (pasta will continue to cook in oven). Drain pasta; return to pot.
3. Toss sauce with pasta. Pour pasta into a large gratin dish or 9-by-13-inch baking dish, and sprinkle with cheeses. Bake until golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Here are my modifications and review: 

First I used frozen beef ravioli. My husband isn't a fan of having cheese as the main protein of a dish, so I either add beans, tofu or meat to any dinner dish I prepare. I used dried oregano from my garden. Homemade dried herbs have a much better flavor and are fresher than store bought. Plus it's very easy to do just wash the fresh herbs, tie the ends with twine, hang upside down in a brown paper bag with air holes cut out and let dry for a week or two. Very easy. I found that I had to bake the ravioli a little longer than the recipe suggested. I ended up adding 2/3 cup of Parmesan on the top of the pasta the last 15 minutes. This added about 10 minutes to my cooking time in order for the sauce to fully thicken.

My kids absolutely loved this recipe. I did add a little bit of salt at the table, but my family is big on salt. Even my husband was won over by this dish. It was definitely a recipe that everyone in my house could agree upon. Obviously since I eat gluten free I couldn't taste the pasta, but it smelled so good! I did sample the sauce before the pasta was added and it had a nice sweet flavor.

For the recipe go to Baked Ravioli.

Recipe published with permission from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Baked Ravioli

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

Martha Stewart's Baked Ravioli Recipe. Plus a tip on how to dry your garden herbs.

Preparation Time: 0h, 25m

Total Time: 1h, 50m

Yield: Serves 6